Matt D

There's always Rey Escorpion?

They just signed a new contract and it's pretty obvious that they could increase half a rating point or decrease half a rating point and it probably wouldn't matter all that much. They'll always be considered insignificant. They should be gutting part of their tv for the network, absolutely. The TV deals are signed. The network is as much money as they can make from it right now.

I would have never been in that spot because I would have had Eddie Gilbert as the Black Scorpion and ended Starccade with Windham as the SECOND Black Scorpion during a ref distraction and picking up the win after Sting gutted Gilbert and then done my Sid/Windham/Doom vs Flair/Arn/Sting/Luger Horsemen war.

The Sting in the main event bit is interesting. It's hard to extrapolate back because obviously they weren't putting Windham in that match instead of Sting for no reason. I know it's giving them a ton of credit, but it really does feel to me that Sting vs Luger at Superbrawl was the plan all along. Luger was revealed relatively early as the force behind the packages. Now, there were ways to make that work still, but you'd have to rethink a lot of stuff. I think they wanted to create multiple programs instead of just one. They wanted to have Sting as a draw in a match and they wanted to have Luger in a draw in a match, both of them having titles, so they could promote multiple big matches at a time? I'm not sure if it worked but I get the mindset of what they were trying to do at least. Also, neither here nor there, but I thought Will's positivity on the podcast was great, even when he was just goofing.

I'm sure glad they asked you guys what obscure Canadian footage they wanted you to see.

And I figured that was the argument but he was hiding it behind semantics. If we're being perfectly frank.

Why the hell can't they just give us Usos vs Rhodes already?

I think there's some of that in the Savage vs Garvin cage match I like a lot. I did look at the World War III 97 line up though and it's pretty brutal when it comes to that skill set. Valentine was one of the only guys I could add.

You know, I wonder if Savage could? Do we have evidence of that, maybe from ICW? Could have Piper? These are guys who I wonder if they were able to manage stuff like that back in 80/81. When Piper was US champ was there a need for that?

Is this the moment where things really turn?

Well now I guess Parv and I aren't going to do that in 2016. The earth has been salted.

Martel could have, but that's maybe it? El Dandy? Honestly, Hennig?

Gene should have eaten the top rope gut buster. That probably would have gotten a bigger pop than even the mask reveal later in the year.

I think we need to define talent. To me, talent is mainly "ability to have what I think is a good wrestling match," and that's 90% savvy and 10% athleticism, maybe. Now, if we're talking about "ability to be on TV every week and still be a draw/force/pop, while not totally destroying your body," then we have to factor in things like whether or not Andre could have had Show's surgery at some point and how the WWE marketing machine would have changed things, etc. Regardless, we need to break this off, but we also have to define talent and I don't think we're going to come up with a uniform answer, so we might have to break it into categories after that.

You back up what you say, explain why you're saying it, and try to listen to what other people are saying and understand them and you can say anything.

Do we know how much they got from Rogers?

First off, glad to be on board, especially for the start of year 3. It's like you guys ended a season and crashed right into Great American Bash 91 in your season premiere. A whole new threat. Other thoughts as I go. That Studd/Flair match isn't hard to find, btw. Flair being managed by 1991 DDP is something to see. Also, the in ring Danger Zone with PN News is way better than the Hervey one since News makes Heyman do it and it's a hilarious performance. That's harder to find but I think I saw it on a WCW Pro Chicago.

EDIT: Bill replied again while I was typing this To be fair, Big Show is HUGELY talented. Hugely. Look at the Wrestlemania match with Mayweather. It's an amazing performance, one of the best of my lifetime. There isn't one breath that Show takes in that match that's not exactly where it should be. It's not a case where one guy is great and the other sucks. That said, it's still a pretty nutty statement if only for how brazen it was and certainly not a given on any level. Maybe it shows some true colors when someone sees "talent" only as "athletic ability," but even then, Andre had that in spades in the 70s and early 80s. That's still where I'd choose to get the pitchforks out, were I to.

If I was going to the live shows, I'd probably be pissed because Rush too most of the match, won so handedly, even if it was screwy, and now where do things go? There's no one on the horizon positioned at all to even be a threat to give Rush comeuppance.

It almost felt like one of those mid-movie scenes where the hero faces off for the villain, one on one, for the first time for revenge, and due to either being over powered or chicanery he gets his ass handed to him and he has to spend the rest of the movie building himself up to face him again with that doubt in his heart. Or maybe I just liked Guardians of the Galaxy a lot more than Rush vs Negro Casas?

I wouldn't call it terrible, at least not relatively. I thought the second fall was sort of clever, with the way the interference backfired and I liked some of the callback stuff with Casas hitting the corner dropkicks, but in general, it wasn't at all worthy of the build. In fact, and I know lucha doesn't always work this way, the ending was so unsatisfying that you almost think they can run it again. It was hardly definitive.

Everyone loved that Brad Rheingans match.

Ignoring the Andre thing completely: At this point, I'm kind of okay with a "standards are transitory and good wrestling is timeless and not in the very least tied to them." mindset, if it'll make this argument go away?

Heyman and Cena would work well together.

Star ratings for Dustin matches (WCW PPVs+Clashes): Dustin Rhodes vs. Buddy Landel = *1/4 Dustin Rhodes vs. Terrance Taylor (w/Alexandra York & Mr. Hughes) = ** Dustin Rhodes vs. Terrance Taylor (w/Alexandra York & Mr. Hughes) = *3/4 Six Man Tag Team Elimination: Dustin Rhodes & The Young Pistols (Steve Armstrong & Tracy Smothers) vs. The Fabulous Freebirds (Badstreet, Jimmy Garvin & Michael Hayes) (w/Big Daddy Dink) = *1/4 WCW World Television Title: Steve Austin © vs. Dustin Rhodes = ***1/2 WCW World Tag Team Title: Dustin Rhodes & Ricky Steamboat (w/Barry Windham) vs. The Enforcers (Arn Anderson & Larry Zbyszko) © = ****1/4 Lethal Lottery Tag Team: Dustin Rhodes & Richard Morton vs. El Gigante & Larry Zbyszko (w/Madusa) =3/4* Barry Windham, Dustin Rhodes & Ron Simmons vs. The Dangerous Alliance (Arn Anderson, Beautiful Bobby & Larry Zbyszko) (w/Paul E. Dangerously) = **** Barry Windham & Dustin Rhodes vs. Larry Zbyszko & Steve Austin = ***3/4 War Games: Sting's Squadron (Barry Windham, Dustin Rhodes, Nikita Koloff, Ricky Steamboat & Sting) vs. The Dangerous Alliance (Arn Anderson, Beautiful Bobby, Larry Zbyszko, Rick Rude & Steve Austin) (w/Madusa & Paul E. Dangerously) = ***** NWA World Tag Team Title Tournament First Round: Barry Windham & Dustin Rhodes vs. Arn Anderson & Beautiful Bobby = ***1/4 Six Man Tag Team Match (Special Referee: Ole Anderson): Barry Windham, Dustin Rhodes & Nikita Koloff vs. The Dangerous Alliance (Arn Anderson, Beautiful Bobby & Steve Austin) (w/Paul E. Dangerously) = **3/4 NWA World Tag Team Title Tournament Quarter Final Match #3: Barry Windham & Dustin Rhodes vs. Rick Rude & Steve Austin = *1/4 NWA World Tag Team Title Tournament Semi Final Match #2: Barry Windham & Dustin Rhodes vs. Hiroshi Hase & Shinya Hashimoto = ** NWA World Tag Team Title Tournament Final Match (vakant): Steve Williams & Terry Gordy vs. Barry Windham & Dustin Rhodes = 3/4* Butch Reed & The Barbarian vs. Barry Windham & Dustin Rhodes = ** NWA/WCW Unified World Tag Team Title: Barry Windham & Dustin Rhodes © vs. Steve Austin & Steve Williams = *** NWA/WCW Unified World Tag Team Title: Ricky Steamboat & Shane Douglas vs. Barry Windham & Dustin Rhodes © = **1/2 Battle Bowl Qualifying: Big Van Vader & Dustin Rhodes (w/Harley Race) vs. Kensuke Sasaki & The Barbarian = * Six Man Tag Team Steel Cage: Cactus Jack, Dustin Rhodes & Sting vs. Barry Windham, Big Van Vader & Paul Orndorff = ***1/4 WCW United States Heavyweight Title: Dustin Rhodes © vs. Maxx Payne = -1/2* Paul Orndorff & Rick Rude vs. Dustin Rhodes & Kensuke Sasaki = ** Big Van Vader, Rick Rude & Sid Vicious (w/Col. Robert Parker & Harley Race) vs. Davey Boy Smith, Dustin Rhodes & Sting = *** WCW United States Heavyweight Title Thirty Minute Iron Man Match (vakant): Dustin Rhodes vs. Rick Rude = ** Dustin Rhodes & Road Warrior Hawk vs. Rick Rude & The Equalizer = 1/2* War Games: Davey Boy Smith, Dustin Rhodes, Sting & The Shockmaster (w/Road Warrior Animal) vs. Harlem Heat (Kane & Kole), Big Van Vader & Sid Vicious (w/Col. Robert Parker & Harley Race) = *1/2 WCW United States Heavyweight Title: Dustin Rhodes © vs. Steve Austin = **3/4 WCW United States Heavyweight Title: Dustin Rhodes (w/Dusty Rhodes) © vs. Paul Orndorff (w/The Assassin) = *1/4 BattleBowl Tag Team Match #4: Dustin Rhodes & King Kong vs. Awesome Kong & The Equalizer = -*** WCW United States Heavyweight Title Best Two Out Of Three Falls: Steve Austin (w/Col. Robert Parker) vs. Dustin Rhodes © = ** WCW World Television Title: Lord Steven Regal (w/Sir William) © vs. Dustin Rhodes = * ThunderCage Six Man Tag Team: Dustin Rhodes, Flyin' Brian & Sting vs. Paul Orndorff, Rick Rude & Steve Austin (w/Col. Robert Parker) = ****1/4 Bunkhouse: Bunkhouse Buck (w/Col. Robert Parker) vs. Dustin Rhodes = **** Bullrope: Dustin Rhodes vs. Bunkhouse Buck (w/Col. Robert Parker) = *1/2 Bunkhouse Buck & Terry Funk (w/Col. Robert Parker) vs. Arn Anderson & Dustin Rhodes = *** Dustin Rhodes & Dusty Rhodes vs. Bunkhouse Buck & Terry Funk (w/Col. Robert Parker & Meng) =**1/2 War Games: Dustin Rhodes, Dusty Rhodes & The Nasty Boys (Brian Knobbs & Jerry Sags) vs. Arn Anderson, Bunkhouse Buck, Col. Robert Parker & Terry Funk (w/Meng) = ***1/4 Dustin Rhodes vs. Arn Anderson (w/Col. Robert Parker & Meng) = ***1/4 Vader (w/Harley Race) vs. Dustin Rhodes = ***1/2 Blacktop Bully (w/Col. Robert Parker) vs. Dustin Rhodes = *1/4 King Of The Road: Blacktop Bully vs. Dustin Rhodes = -** Kind of weird curve there with a few blips here and there.